Derek Sanderson Jeter will likely join the exclusive 3,000 hit club this weekend in the Bronx. He will be only the 28th player to ever reach that plateau. Yet, for the last two seasons we have spent most of our time poking all the holes in the 37-year-old's hitting when what we should be doing is celebrating him.
Since his ML debut in 1995, Jeter has compiled seven 200 hit seasons and a career batting average of .312. Yes he is not the player he used to be, that is clear to anyone, but what doesn't appear to be clear to anyone is what we will be losing when Jeter retires and heads to Cooperstown.
He was a key piece of five championship teams, including the 1998-2001 Yankees, quite possibly the final dynasty we will have see thanks to the big spending of free agency. Jeter never won an MVP, never hit 25 home runs, only totaled 100 RBI once but all along the way you could pencil him in for a .300 average, 200 hits and 100 runs scored each season in the Bronx.
In an era when nearly everyone was using some form of enhancement it appears "The Captain" was one of the few that is not even questioned. He will be a first ballot hall of fame inductee and we will like never see another superstar athlete handle the big apple the way Jeter has. He grew up a Yankee fan and knew what all the tradition meant and embraced it. Think about the fact that Jeter has lived under the microscope of "Page 6" for his entire career and he has been without scandal every step of the way.
What many people want to talk about are his diminishing batting average and his lack of quickness at shortstop. I like to think about "The Flip" or his walk-off home run in game 4 of the 2001 World Series and of course No. 2 going full speed into the stands to make a catch.
Like I said there will never be a player quite like Derek Sanderson Jeter ever again.
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